THEIR SALAD DAY S
LONG GONE,
REC LEAGUE
BASKETBALL PLAYERS
PERSEVERE ANDY GOTLIEB | JE MANAGING EDITOR




Steve Dabrow trudged into the JCC Kaiserman
gym on a recent Tuesday night, sat down heavily
and let out a groan as he prepared for his
upcoming basketball game.

Name: Goldstein's Funeral Home
Width: 3.625"
Depth: 9.75"
Color: Black plus one
Comment: 12/15 Winter Good Life Mag
Ad Number: 00069347
When the 56-year-old Washington
Square resident was asked why he
continued to play a sport most
people his age have quit years
earlier, he laughed.

“I’ve got major issues. That’s
why I keep playing.”
A few minutes later, Dabrow
STEVE DABROW
forgot about his age, serving as his
team’s point guard for all 40 minutes of a
hard-fought game that wasn’t decided until the final buzzer.

Dabrow was one of more than 40 men ranging in age from
their mid-40s to early 60s who popped Advil in advance, strapped
on knee and ankle braces, rubbed on the Bengay and tried to turn
back time to perform like they did when Presidents Carter and
Reagan were in office.

For more than 20 years, the JCC has offered a variety
of adult basketball leagues. Leagues for 18-and-up and
35-and-up players have fallen by the wayside — and a 60-
and-up league started a year ago was aborted after
a single season.

But the 50-and-up league perseveres, even if the
number of teams dwindles and the age restrictions
are fudged a bit to fill the rosters.

That said, the league has changed.

A decade ago, a majority of the players were
Jewish JCC members. Today, the league is largely not
Jewish, with Jewish JCC members in short supply.

That follows the trend of the weekend pickup games
at JCC. Where as many as 40 mostly Jewish members
once waited their turn to play pickup games the
moment the building opened, today it may take 30
minutes before 10 older guys — few of them Jewish —
straggle in to play. For whatever reason, a whole gener-
ation of Jewish basketball players (those now in their late
30s and 40s) doesn’t play at the JCC.

League organizer Greg Casey, 56, played in
the leagues for years before turning to refer-
eeing. He said some people have quit
See Basketball, Page 8
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM THE GOOD LIFE
DECEMBER 15, 2016
7